'It's All About Jesus'

EQ 81.3 (2009), 254–268 ‘It’s all about Jesus’: a critical analysis of the ways in which the songs of four contemporary worship Christian songwriters can lead to an impoverished christology Andrew Goodliff Andy Goodliff is training for Baptist ministry and completing an MTh at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford KEY WORDS: christology, worship, songs, Jesus, trinity, priestly office, prophetic office The last fifteen years have seen the rise of a new group of young prolific Chris- tian songwriters whose worship songs have found a global audience, particu- larly in the UK where they all live.1 Three of the songwriters – Matt Redman, Tim Hughes and Martyn Layzell, have close links with the Christian youth organisa- tion Soul Survivor and its erstwhile parent New Wine; while one – Paul Oakley, has links with New Frontiers. Soul Survivor, New Wine and New Frontiers are all expressions of charismatic Christianity. New Wine and Soul Survivor grew out of the relationship between David Pytches (then minister at St. Andrew’s Chorley- wood) and John Wimber, the then leader and founder of Vineyard.2 The values of Vineyard, its emphasis on worship and signs and wonders are evident in both New Wine and Soul Survivor.3 New Frontiers emerged out of the house-church movement of the 1970s under the leadership of Terry Virgo.4 It was also influ- enced by John Wimber and Vineyard, and is shaped by a Calvinistic theology.5 1 This article is only able to look at four Christian songwriters. The four in this study were chosen because of their connection to worship aimed at young people (that is, those who are predominantly in their teens and twenties), which they pioneered from the mid-1990s onwards. A wider more diverse study of other Christian songwriters might produce some different conclusions from those that I make. I write as someone who attended the Soul Survivor summer festival during 1998-2004 and, despite the criticisms made here, still enjoys and uses many of the songs that are written by the songwriters here analysed. 2 David Pytches, Living at the Edge: The Autobiography of David Pytches (Arcadia, 2002). 3 For a critical examination of Vineyard see Martyn Percy’s study Words, Wonders and Power. Understanding Contemporary Christian Fundamentalism and Revivalism (London, SPCK, 1996). 4 For a historical and critical description of the story see Andrew Walker, Restoring the Kingdom: The Radical Christianity of the House Church Movement (Guildford, Eagle, 19984) and also William A. Kay, Apostolic Networks in Britain (Milton Keynes, Paternoster, 2007). 5 William Kay describes it as an ‘evangelistic Calvinistic theology coupled with a Pentecostal or charismatic theology of the Spirit’, Apostolic Networks in Britain, 2007, 66. ‘It’s all about Jesus’ EQ • 255 It is in these contexts that the four songwriters that are the focus of this study grew up and emerged. Between them they have written two hundred songs and produced over twenty CDs. Some have written books and run conferences and websites that train and encourage worship leaders and songwriters. As Lester Ruth remarks ‘for many newer churches and younger Christians, [the songs from these songwriters] are the only music they know.’6 Their influence on what many churches listen to and what they sing is extensive. Worship leaders are the new priests and as a result ‘music has come to assume a kind of priestly role in much worship, insofar as it is regarded almost as the primary vehicle by which people enter the presence of God.’7 At a worship service of New Wine, Soul Sur- vivor or New Frontiers, up to thirty or forty minutes will be spent singing, followed by a talk/sermon, followed by a time of “ministry” (which consists of people being prayed for and more singing). Whereas in other traditions the liturgy is shared between prayers, readings, and songs or hymns, Robin Parry says that ‘in churches that do not have liturgy, the burden of guiding the encounter falls heavily upon the songs. In many charismatic churches, the songs play the domi- nant role in shaping the worship-encounter.’8 Christian worship should tell the whole drama of salvation.9 It should be a balance between objective and subjective, or as Matt Redman puts it, a balance between ‘revelation and response.’10 Christian worship should be participatory and not a spectator sport. Christian worship should be pedagogical, that is, forming the congregation as the people of God.11 Christian worship is a balance between the two ancient doxologies: ‘Glory to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit’ and ‘Glory to the Father with the Son, together with the Holy Spirit.’12 The first doxology acknowledges that worship is something we participate in, as James Torrance says, ‘worship is the gift of participating through the Spirit in the incarnate Son’s communion with the Father.’13 The second doxology acknowl- 6 Lester Ruth, ‘Lex Amandi, Lex Orandi: The Trinity in the Most-Used Contemporary Christian Worship Songs’ in, Bryan D. Spinks (ed.), The Place of Christ in Liturgical Prayer (Collegeville, Minnesota, Liturgical Press, 2008), 342. 7 Graham Redding, Prayer and the Priesthood of Christ (London, T & T Clark, 2003), 298 n.30. 8 Robin Parry, Worshipping Trinity (Milton Keynes, Paternoster, 2005), 14. 9 See Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and enacting God’s Narrative (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2008). 10 Matt Redman, ‘Revelation and Response’ in The Heart of Worship Files, (ed.) Matt Redman (Kingsway, 2003), 11-14. In a later chapter he talks about the need to find ‘a good balance between the “content” and “engagement”’, ‘Content and Engagement’ in The Heart of Worship Files, 2003, 154. 11 ‘For Christians the principal practice by which the moral imagination is formed, the principal form of discipleship training, is worship’, Samuel Wells, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics (London, SPCK, 2004), 82. 12 Geoffrey Wainwright, ‘Trinitarian Worship’ in Worship With One Accord: where Liturgy and Ecumenism Embrace (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997), 238. 13 James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace (Carlisle, Paternoster, 1996), 18. 256 • EQ Andrew Goodliff edges that we worship God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While the Son and the Spirit enable and mediate our worship to the Father, they also share the Father’s divinity and therefore ‘they are equally to be given that which only God should receive… worship and honour and glory.’14 Accordingly Christian worship should be both mediated through the Son and in the Spirit and be given to the Father with the Son and with the Spirit. To deny one or the other is to be in danger of either creating a distance between God and worshippers – no media- tor – or to suggest the Son and the Spirit are not fully divine. This study is a critical analysis of the christology found in the songs of the four particular songwriters named above. If there is one song lyric that sums up these four worship song writers it would be ‘it’s all about you Jesus’.15 The com- mon thread that runs through these songs is their Jesus-centredness. The vast majority of their songs are addressed to or about Jesus.16 At first glance this is not necessarily problematic or heretical, the second doxology mentioned above, allows worship of the Son, and worship addressed to Jesus was developed as a reaction against Arianism and in support of the Son’s homoousios with the Fa- ther. However this essay will argue that an overemphasis on worship to or about Jesus leads to an impoverished christology and as a consequence worship that can become distorted and in danger of ceasing to be Christian. Analysis of the songs An analysis of these songs must acknowledge that ‘[songs] are theological, but they are not systematic theology.’17 The songs of charismatic worship are songs of narrative encounter with God rather than an expression of doctrinal beliefs.18 However, within charismatic Christianity ‘a great deal of theology [received] is through song lyrics, and it is the nearest most Christians come to scripture memorization.’19 The songs within this study cover everything each songwriter has written (and in some cases co-written) and recorded (either in studio or live) up the end of July 2008. 14 Colin Gunton, Father, Son & Holy Spirit: Toward a Fully Trinitarian Theology (London, T & T Clark, 2003), 84. 15 The line appears in two songs – one by Paul Oakley (‘Jesus Lover of My Soul’, © 1995 Thankyou Music) and one by Matt Redman (‘The Heart of Worship’, © 1997 Thankyou Music). 16 In percentage terms around 59% of songs studied. This percentage could be higher, but in some songs it difficult to determine who is being sung to outside of ‘Lord’ or simply ‘You’. 17 Pete Ward, Growing Up Evangelical (London, SPCK, 1995), 108. 18 Pete Ward, Selling Worship (Milton Keynes, Paternoster, 2005), chapter 12. 19 Graham Kendrick, ‘Worship in Spirit and in Truth’ in Stephen Darlington and Alan Kreider (eds.), Composing Music for Worship (Norwich, Canterbury Press, 2003), 95. ‘It’s all about Jesus’ EQ • 257 Matt Redman One of Matt Redman’s20 earliest and most well-known songs is ‘I will offer up my life.’21 The song is a song of worship to Jesus, expressing how the worshipper should give everything, but is unable to. Jesus is addressed as a ‘faithful friend’ and a ‘loving king’, both titles that are frequently used together in Redman’s songs.22 With reference to Philippians 2:8, the lyrics express Jesus as one who gives up his life to death, even death on a cross.

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